In a substrate processing apparatus repeatedly performing a substrate processing process (batch process) based on a recipe, there exist a number of positions (e.g., at which a temperature sensor, a gas flow meter, a pressure gauge or the like are installed; referred to as “data generation positions” hereinafter). At such data generation positions, monitor data (indicating various data that includes time series data such as temperature, gas flow rate, pressure or the like) showing the progress state of the substrate processing process or running conditions of the substrate processing apparatus can be collected. In the case of employing a plurality of the substrate processing apparatuses, a group management apparatus (a high-level management apparatus) may be connected thereto via a network to integrally and effectively control the progress state of the substrate processing process and the conditions of the group of the substrate processing apparatuses. The group management apparatus is configured in such a way to receive the aforementioned monitor data showing the progress state of the substrate processing process and the running conditions of the substrate processing apparatus from each substrate processing apparatus and to store the monitor data thus received in a database (DB) to be readable for further processing.
Reducing a time interval of acquiring the monitor data increases the acquisition frequency of the monitor data (i.e., which improves monitor data granularity), which makes it possible to accurately detect the change in conditions of the respective components of the substrate processing apparatus. If, however, the acquisition frequency of the monitor data increases, the data amount to be acquired becomes greater. This requires more memory area or the like to thereby increase a processing load of the substrate processing apparatus and group management apparatus. In addition, the monitor data generated in the substrate processing apparatus is configured in a manner to be transmitted to the group management apparatus every time it is acquired. For this reason, an increase in the acquisition frequency of the monitor data causes the data amount of the entire substrate processing system to be greater although the increased amount of data per apparatus may be small. Accordingly, there is a possibility of increasing the network load.
To address the above issue, a conventional substrate processing apparatus has reduced the network load by transmitting only a part of the acquired monitor data, specifically only the monitor data acquired in a predetermined cycle to the group management apparatus. In such a method, however, the monitor data is thinned out and thus the complete monitor data is not transmitted to the group management apparatus. Thus, this makes it difficult to monitor every change in condition of each component of forming the substrate processing apparatus.